Coaching

Let me help you become the strongest product professional you can be

I've been a Product practitioner for 15+ years. The most recent 5 years, I managed and developed 23 product managers and designers. I did this as the VP of Product at Nautilus Labs and Director of Product and Design at Def Method. I've taught courses on product management and have a robust playbook from Pivotal Labs and other places I've managed products. I love to use this playbook to help my clients get unstuck.

I love helping product folks thrive. I studied Mind, Brain, and Behavior at Harvard and have always been fascinated by human motivation and decision making. I would probably be a psychiatrist or therapist if I hadn't caught the product bug in 2008. My coaching practice reflects that.

Who do I work with?

I like to stack the deck in my favor and take on highly coachable clients. I look to work with those that demonstrate the innate characteristics of truly excellent product folk. Often, I work with people that I've managed in the past because I know what they are capable of, where they have gaps, and what conditions help them to thrive. And we trust each other out of the gate.

Recently, I've started taking on new coaching clients. It's going pretty well! I specialize in experienced product managers who are in IC roles or those newer to management and leadership roles. I am also happy to work with folks in other roles or seniority levels, as long as their goals are in my wheelhouse.

If you're interested in working together, fill out this intake form. Then, let's schedule 30 minutes to chat and figure out if it's a good fit.

Coaching Intake Form

"Isabelle was instrumental in building my skill as a disciplined product person, especially around finding the simplicity in complex situations, honing what's most important in product and team development, finding a voice around when it's okay not to do something, and facilitating productive conversations with complicated stakeholders. She was able to find a balance of challenging me, while always consistently supporting me."

- Katie Cladis, VP Product at Digital Remedy

Pricing and Approach

If you do not find our time together valuable I will not charge you.

100% of my clients have valued 100% of our sessions together, so I feel comfortable making this guarantee. After each session I solicit your candid feedback and work to become a better coach to you each time we meet. You can stop working with me at any point and I will refund any unused coaching sessions.

I charge per session ($200-$700) and typically meet with clients for 75 minutes every week or every other week. Cost depends on who is paying (you or your company) and how many sessions you are booking. Discounts are available if you are self-pay and/or from an underrepresented group (women, PoC, etc).

My clients set the goals for our time together and I design our sessions and my coaching approach based on those goals.

Some topics we might cover are quite tactical, for example:

How can I improve my communication to be more crisp and 'executive level'?
I am building a net new product/feature and am not confident the steps I am taking are the correct ones
My engineering team tends to go 'rogue' and waste time. How can I keep them focused on the most important work?
My product roadmap isn't landing with my team or my stakeholders, how can I improve this artifact?
I have some difficult feedback to deliver, can you help me strategize how to deliver it?
How can I do a better job of keeping my stakeholders up to date and bought in?

Some topics might be more strategic, for example:

I feel like am imposter in my role--do I belong here? Have I been correctly leveled?
My report is struggling, how can I help them succeed?
I don't know what my career progression and goals should look like and what gaps I need to address to progress
I have received X feedback and am not sure how best to address it
I don't know what my super powers are as a product person or how best to lean into those
I have a role/job I really want and need help positioning myself to get it
I am starting a new role/job and want to make sure that I am set up for success

Have questions?

Drop me an email

Talks & Writings

The (Def)inition Lab: Our recipe for reducing the risk of product failure

7 signs that you need a product manager

I need to update this list... and write more...

Top Shelf Product Books

If I coach you, chances are I've recommended a book or two in our work together. Here are the books I go back to most often. Many of them written by friends and mentors! "How to Measure Anything" is currently on loan and "Just Enough Research" is there but so sun washed you can't read the spine.